


Have a kid with me?

by immortal_jellyfish



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: BakodaFleetWeek, Family Fluff, How Do I Tag, Implied Zukka, Kid Fic, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, kids later in life, referenced kataang, with kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25555921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/immortal_jellyfish/pseuds/immortal_jellyfish
Summary: Hakoda regrets preventing Bato from having kids of his own. But maybe it’s not too late?
Relationships: Bato/Hakoda (Avatar), Hakoda & Kanna (Avatar), Hakoda & Katara (Avatar), Hakoda & Sokka (Avatar)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 119
Collections: Bakoda Fleet Week 2020





	Have a kid with me?

**Author's Note:**

> I haven’t written a fic in a really long time and never for ATLA, but Bakoda fleet week inspired me and I thought it was a good chance to get back into writing. Please excuse any rustiness! (Also this is very unbetad)

“I love kids.” Bato says with a sigh, even as his nephew groans and struggles out of his grasp. Something about his tone makes Hakoda look up from feeding Arre.

“Yeah?” He doesn’t know why he says it like a question. It’s not that he didn’t know Bato liked kids. He always jumps at the chance to spend time with his niece and nephew, and of course he was always helpful with Katara and Sokka when they were still little. But the sincerity he said it with... Something churns a bit in Hakoda’s stomach and he suddenly feels inexplicably nervous.

Hakoda watches Bato closely as he answers, but Bato’s attention is focused on Tenek as he runs over to grab a toy club and starts smacking cushions with it. “Yeah. Sometimes I think in another life...” 

Hakoda inhales a little too sharply, causing Bato to glance back at him. “Oh I don’t mean — I’m happy with my choices, Hakoda. I don’t mean to sound regretful.” 

He opens his mouth to respond but a soft gurgle interrupts him and he realizes Arre has finished her bottle. He shifts her up to rest on his shoulder as he pats her back.

Bato chuckles. “Besides, I spent so much time with your kids back in the day and I get to see Mona’s kids all the time now. I’m happy being Uncle Bato.” _Your_ kids. The word strikes Hakoda hard, despite the softness of its delivery. 

There’s a crash as Tenek upgrades from hitting pillows to smacking more exciting things and knocks a bowl off the table. “Tenek! No!” Bato leaps up to lift him away from the ceramic shards and the conversation is suddenly over.

***

Hakoda usually enjoys returning to his mother’s igloo. Most of his time is spent in much more elaborate settings as Chief. Even the home he and Bato share has to be acceptably formal for hosting diplomats from the other nations. But Kanna’s home has changed very little even as its surroundings have shifted drastically. There’s a pleasantly nostalgic comfort to it.

Right now though, he feels anything but comfortable as he sits caught between his inner turmoil and the pointed look his mother is giving him as she serves him tea. “You know I love it when you visit. You don’t do it often enough anymore.” 

She pauses and turns to mess with the pot on the fire, but he knows she isn’t finished. “And I’m perfectly happy to spend time enjoying peaceful quiet with my son.” As she sets the soup down in front of him she looks him directly in the eye. “But I know the difference between quiet contentment and silent tension.” 

He sighs, leaning into the drama of it a little. “I don’t know if I want to talk about it, mom.” Talking to her about Bato is always challenging. Even when he was with Kya he had difficulty discussing their relationship with her. And it’s harder now. It’s not that Kanna doesn’t like Bato or that she disapproves, but there is an awkwardness. Maybe it’s harder to talk about a second partner. One who isn’t your children’s parent. Or maybe Hakoda is projecting about his own feelings on Pakku. 

She clicks her tongue and shakes her head. “It is why you’re here, though, yes?”

He takes a long drink of his tea to buy himself another moment. “Have I been unfair to Bato?”

He thinks her face flickers with surprise for a moment, but it quickly goes back to calming neutral she usually maintains. “Does he think you have? Do you think you have?”

He wishes he didn’t have to sit still right now. Maybe they should’ve taken a walk. “No. Or, maybe. I...” He’s never really told her their story. Doesn’t even think she knows how far back it goes. That Bato has been... _there_ since before Kya passed. “I worry that I’ve held him back. Or that he held himself back for me. That if I had let go, he could’ve had more.”

She looks him over, her gaze as intense as ever. “Hakoda, I know there are things you don’t tell me. So maybe everything isn’t quite what I think it is. But any choices he made are his own. And from what I can see, he seems content with them.” She smiles a little. “And so do you. But even if there are regrets, you can’t change them now. The only thing you can do is make the present better than the worst of the past.”

He pokes at his uneaten stew. “Is that how you feel about Pakku?” 

“I suppose it is. Though on my part, I don’t have many regrets. I wouldn’t change my choice to leave, or my choice to marry your father. I am sad that those decisions hurt Pakku, but that doesn’t mean I regret them. And then, when the time was right, I got to make a different choice, this time with Pakku.” Sometimes Hakoda wonders if all old people speak like this; with a confidence in their wisdom. Does he sound like this when he gives his own children advice?

“What if the right time for something has passed? If I missed the opportunity for something important?” He realizes in that moment, as he says the words, that maybe Bato isn’t the only one who is saddened by the loss of a possibility.

Kanna looks confused for a moment, and he thinks she’s going to ask him a question before suddenly she laughs so loudly that it startles him. “Just how old do you think you are? Hakoda, it’d be different if you were my age, but lots of people have children in their forties. Especially when you don’t have to worry about conception.”

At first he’s surprised, and he almost asks her how she knew. But he can already picture the way she’d smile at him and only vaguely insist that a mother always knows. So instead he just thanks her and excuses himself to think on her words.

***

He doesn’t want to get Bato’s hopes up when there are still so many uncertainties. So he decides that before he talks to him, he has to talk to his kids. 

He’d been in a similar spot several years ago, not long after the war. When he had to have the “Hey, you know my friend and war buddy who you call Uncle Bato? Is it cool if I marry him?” talk with Katara and Sokka. That had actually gone really well. They both had some mixed feelings about him moving on from their mother, but they worked through that together and they’ve always been good to Bato. 

That previous success does little to ease his nerves today. Remarrying is one thing, but having another kid? With someone who isn’t their mother? And to have siblings that will be decades younger than them? That could be a much harder sell. He tries not to show his anxiety as they arrive.

As they sit in his home and begin to tell him about their lives, he can’t help but drift to thoughts how grown they are. Sokka feels so tall and broad when he hugs him, something that he will never get used to. He is dressed in his formal attire as an Ambassador, mainly the blues of the water tribe but with accents of the other nations’ colors. The reminder of how his son is representing his people sends a proud warmth through him. Especially since he knows how happy his son is in the fire nation. His face lights up as he tells him about what he’s working on with the fire lord. Hakoda wonders how much of it has to do with the work. 

Sokka rambles for a while before finally pausing long enough for Katara to get a few words in. She tells them of her work with Aang, fumbling with the second stone on her necklace that sits just beneath the first. He’d been a little skeptical of them marrying so young, making a lifetime commitment at only 20. But he’d respected her enough to let her make her own choice, and they seem to be thriving as newlyweds. He has to trust that she will keep her mind as open for him as he did for her.

When he finally manages to get the words out, the air is tense for a moment. Then Sokka puts his hand on his shoulder and tells him he’d always wanted a brother, and he supposes another sister would be alright too. 

Katara is a little more hesitant. She tells him she needs a little time to come to terms with it. That she doesn’t know how to feel about how her own children will likely be closer in age to her siblings than she will be. He understands, and agrees to give her space to think about it. But it is only the next day that she pulls him into a hug and tells him she thinks it’s a good idea, that Bato will be a great father to her sibling. 

***

“Mmm. Is that sea prune stew?” Hakoda asks as he steps into the kitchen, finally emerging from a long day cooped up in his office. Unlike most days in his office, however, he wasn’t working on trade negotiations or supply distribution. He spent most of the evening looking into the possibility of adoption. He’d been worried about the logistics of it; for so long the tribe had just informally stepped up to care for children without parents. But he found that now that the tribe was much larger, adoptions were more common and becoming more formally recognized thanks to some Northern Tribe laws that technically still applied here. The last piece had fallen into place. He could really make this happen. He’s so excited that his hands are shaking. 

“Yes, I got done with my own work a while ago and thought you’d enjoy them.” Bato smiles back at him as he stirs the soup.

Hakoda steps up behind him, resting his hands on Bato’s hips, pressing his lips against the back of his neck. “Bato?” he asks softly.

Bato pauses at his tone. He wipes his hands on a towel and turns in Hakoda’s embrace to face him. “Hakoda?”

“Have a kid with me?”

***

**Author's Note:**

> I very recently made an ATLA tumblr, come find me as [zukkainlove](https://zukkainlove.tumblr.com)!


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